


perfect's for the urgent

by contranda, rainingstars_midnightskies



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Slow Burn, ap student au, many marvel cameos and ppl w like one line ok
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-26 07:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14995628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/contranda/pseuds/contranda, https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainingstars_midnightskies/pseuds/rainingstars_midnightskies
Summary: It's the height of junior year and Bucky Barnes is drowning in work for his AP classes. He enlists the help of classmate, and long time crush, Steve Rogers so that he won't bomb the one class he actually enjoys. Unfortunately for the two, nothing about junior year is as easy as it seems, and what seemed like a straightforward arrangement becomes so much more.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> halfway through our worst school year we realized that applying all the tomfoolery of our real life APLAC class to steve and bucky's lives would be a good way to cope. so we wrote this.
> 
> the school things are based off of what school is like in the california bay area, so yeah that's why they eat outside and get so stressed :) they say to write what you know!
> 
> title is from aminé's caroline. because of course it is

“Hey, Rogers.” A sheaf of papers slammed down on his desk. Steve glanced up.

“What?”

“Help me.”

Steve rolled his eyes and glanced down at the papers. Bucky tugged them back. “Hey, don’t look at my shit grades if you haven’t agreed to help me.”

“Yeah ok, a dumbass like you needs all the help he can get.”

Bucky glared at him, but sat down in the empty chair to his right, pushing the papers back toward him. “Okay but, like, don’t tell Stark, he’d never let it go.”

Steve flipped the top paper over, recognizing the AP Lang quiz they had taken last week, albeit with all but one answer space left blank. On the top, written over Bucky’s name, was a bold red F alongside “See me after class!” The rest of the papers were in the same vein; the highest scored assignment, a personal reflection that they did in August, scored a B-.

He glanced up at Bucky, who raised an eyebrow, clearly feigning boredom. “You can see I’m not doing so hot, or else I’d never ask _you_ for help.”

“Thanks,” Steve deadpanned.

“Anyway. I- lost the book, and I’m being fined for it, so I’d like to get my grade up so I don’t feel so shitty about everything. Can you, like…” he gestured around vaguely.

“Can I…?” Steve raised an eyebrow.

“You know, like, nerd me up?”

“Oh. My. God. It’s like you don’t even want me to help you.”

“I kinda don’t, man, but it’s you or Tony.”

“Fair. Library after school?”

“Yeah. When are you free.” It wasn’t a question.

“After school, man, I just said so,” Steve began, but faltered after being met with the deadliest glare he’d ever seen. “Uh, Wednesdays and Fridays, and I have an empty seventh block, so those work too?”

“Sick. I have Engineering seventh, so see you Wednesday.” Bucky grabbed his papers, shoved them into his backpack, and sauntered out.

 

~

 

The rest of Tuesday dragged on in the typical haze of last-minute cramming and wishing for death, but soon Wednesday had arrived. Steve’s brain was usually pretty sharp on good days, but said good days, unfortunately, did not include that Wednesday.

By the time he had arrived to school, realizing halfway through his bus ride that he had forgotten to charge his graphing calculator, and on the day of a Calc test too, he was about ready to crawl back in bed.

As he walked to his first class, German III, a taller figure bumped into him in the corridor. “Hey, watch it.”  
“Bucky? You don’t have a fourth. Why are you—”

“Had to talk to Coulson about that quiz.” Bucky elbowed him aside and stormed down the hallway.

“Oh, right. Hey, we’re still meeting this afternoon, right?” Steve called down the corridor.

Bucky only raised his hand in response.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Steve muttered, pushing the Oktoberfest themed curtain aside and stepping into class.

~

 

Two periods and one borrowed calculator later, Steve slid into his regular lunch seat next to Sam.

“Oh hey man, how was the test?”

Steve shrugged noncommittally, “There’s two application questions on derivatives, but like the type without the functions.”

Sam winced, “Damn, I’m so fucked next block. You want to hang out after school and complain about it?”

Steve froze around his mouthful of turkey sandwich. “I’m, uh, busy today.”

Sam blinked. “Don’t tell me, you joined the football team?” He burst into laughter. “No, but seriously, what?”

“I’m tutoring Bucky for APLAC.”

“…Huh? Bucky? Like, the same one you spent two hours rantin—”

“ _Shut_ ,” said Steve. “Yeah. That one.”

“Well, good luck man. Want a chip?”

Steve nodded, grabbing a handful of Takis just as the bell rang.

“Dude, I said _a_ chip. Singular quantifier. Aren’t you in APLAC?”

Steve smirked, grabbing his bag. “Text me after the test, Sammy.”

 

~

 

Steve’s last class of the day was AP Studio Art, essentially a bunch of seniors in hi-top Vans and yellow sweaters working on pretentious artwork. Steve loved it there. Too bad it wasn’t an AP science, or anything that would look good on a Berkeley application.

The bell rang earlier than it should have, in Steve’s opinion. With a colossal sigh, he flipped his portfolio shut and shouldered his bag, making for his locker.

There was someone blocking the way. “Excuse me,” Steve said.

The figure pulled his hood down and shuffled aside. “Took you long enough,” said Bucky, because _of course_ it was Bucky.

“What, are you stalking me?” Steve joked. “You seem to be really on my tail lately.”

Bucky shoved his hands deeper in his pockets and turned his face away. “I need to get my grade up, man. Can’t get ditched on the first day.” Before Steve could reply, Bucky was already trudging toward the library.

Steve hurriedly zipped up his backpack and followed.

 

~

 

An hour and a half later, Steve was sitting in the window seat of the 55 bus, finally on his way home, when his phone buzzed.

**Conversation with Bird Boy, Sept 3**

**4:52: Howd it go ¬_¬**

4:53: Well, uh it went.

**4:53: LMAOOOOOOOO**

**4:53: If aplac got B U C KY asking u for help……………**

4:55: You’re just bitter because Amlit H has spent all year so far on short stories.

4:56: But yeah, I think I was able to help him with the vocab. Every time he got a word wrong I worried he would stab me...

**4:56: Rofl thats why i dont trust white boys**

**4:57: Oh except you (Ŏ艸Ŏ)**

**5:00:** **Steeeeeeve?**

**5:00: I didnt mean it**

5:01: Sorry, I was getting off the bus.

5:01: An old lady needed help with her groceries.

**5:02: Awwwww look at you being all helpful and shit**

**5:02: Those old ladies thanking you are probably the only game you get :P**

**5:04: Stevie?**

5:05: Sorry dude. Mom needs help with dinner and I still have all my homework to do.

**5:05: Rite bc you were helping mr short dark and kinda emo ;)**

**5:06: Ok ill leave you alone tho ttyl**

5:06: Bye Sam

 

~

 

Across town, Mr. Short, Dark, and Kinda Emo was making his way home on foot after his shitty cousin stole one of his bike tires as a “prank” that weekend. It was a long walk, nearly an hour on a good day. Luckily, today was a good day. The sun had already set by the time he reached his destination, which gave him plenty of cover to sneak back into the house. He’d sooner die than let the old man know that he was home.

Pierce was still out, doing whatever it is a shitty uncle-by-marriage does with food stamps and free time. Bucky grabbed a box of cereal from the cupboard, deciding not to take his chances with the pizza box shoved into the fridge, and retreated to his room.

He flipped his laptop open, praying that the wifi would work for once, while stuffing a handful of Lucky Charms into his mouth. The wifi icon flashed back at him with two illuminated bars, and he almost unironically said “Praise Satan” before realizing that he was no longer twelve years old and that his Hot Topic Supernatural pajamas no longer fit him. There was some stupid message notification on Facebook, and when he clicked on it to check what was going on, Steve’s ridiculously happy face grinned back at him from the videocall. How had he just managed to catch it? Without thinking, he picked up.

When Steve’s face finally showed up, unfrozen, Bucky glared into the camera. “What do you want?”

“Sorry to bother you, dude. I just wanted to correct something I said in the library. _Anaphora_ is the repetition of a word at the beginning of successive sentences, not aposiopesis. I guess I gotta study some more, too.” Steve rubbed the back of his neck, a bit red in the face. “So, uh…yeah. Just wanted to tell you that.”

“Couldn’t you have just messaged me?” Bucky pointed out.

“Uh…” Steve gaped at the camera. “Whoops! My bad. I should’ve just done that.”

Bucky rolled his eyes, but felt himself smiling anyways. “You’re a mess, Rogers, but th-” He cut himself off (aposiopesis!) as he heard keys scraping in the lock of the front door.

“Shit, dude, I have to go, my- yeah, I have to go.”

“Bye Bucky, see you to-”

Bucky hung up quickly and moved away from his door, just in case the approaching footsteps didn’t veer towards the house’s one bathroom.

He was lucky again, and heard Pierce start running the sink. It was always a coin toss as to whether or not he was going to start screaming and throwing shit at Bucky, or just completely ignore him. Seemed like it was going to be one of the latter nights, a small blessing in that maybe one of his other school books would survive a few more days.

Speaking of school books…Bucky pulled his math homework from his backpack. He was finally motivated to do it, which wasn’t inspired by actually wanting to learn for once or anything. Nope. None of that.

His mind went into autopilot as he scribbled out answers. The sheet was just 30 problems of busywork, and it wasn’t all that difficult either. The phone rang somewhere in the house. Bucky wondered who it might be. Even though he knew she would never call, his mind drifted to Rebecca, and instantly a scene began constructing itself in his head.

_He’d come out of his room for once and pick up the phone. “Pierce residence. Who is this?”_

_“Hello? James, is that you?” That would be his grandma. “Rebecca said she wanted to talk to you. Here, I’ll put her on—”_

_“Wait, Grandma—”_

_“Hello? Bucky?” Rebecca’s voice. He hadn’t heard it in so many years. “I just…I wanted to check on you and see if you were doing okay, ‘cause we haven’t talked in a while, and—”_

_“No, that’s okay. It’s fine. I’m fine. How are you?” Bucky was holding back tears._

_“I’m okay. Things are going pretty—”_

The door to his room slammed open. “When did you get here?”

Bucky ground his pencil into the paper, snapping the tip. “A while ago. Long enough to be here when _you_ got back.”

The door crashed shut. That was that, Bucky guessed. He heard angry mutterings outside and caught the word “ungrateful,” followed by “Jew,” which meant he probably wouldn’t be getting dinner tonight. Not that he cared. He had sucrose-saturated cereal and managed to avoid a book to the head.

Ten more problems to go. He knew the noise wouldn’t stop for a while, so he pulled his phone and frayed earbuds from his backpack and blasted some rock band he didn’t really know the name of whose album he had bootlegged off some shady Slavic site. The math worksheet was done in three minutes.

He finished his last math problem and tucked the sheet away in his binder. As it seemed that Pierce had wandered away to his own room to, like, eat babies or something Paul Ryan-esque (okay, Bucky knew he was sleeping off his day drinking, but hey), he switched off the music and put his earbuds carefully back in his bag, playing the music from his computer speakers instead.

He spared a moment to wonder whether people like Tony, or Steve with his wholesome, functional household, had to tiptoe around their families every day. _Probably not_ , he scoffed to himself, crunching down another fistful of cereal.

He glanced at the clock; it was only six-thirty, but if he had to walk to school again he’d need to be out of the house at six. Maybe he could take the bus? He had enough quarters to bus there at least, but the rest of his paychecks from his summer job had gone to his savings account, and apparently now, to bike repairs.

That would give him until twelve to do homework and still get a fair amount of sleep, so he clicked open the files for his Engineering project. He was working with this other guy, Scott Lang, on a functional mock-up prosthetic, with Scott doing the circuitry and Bucky the exterior. It was pretty advanced for a high school engineering class, but it was actually useful and bound to get an A for the concept alone.

So far, all they had was a google doc with “ill HANDle the hand part ;)” and then a gif of some ants marching in a star shape. Bucky sighed, cracked his knuckles, and grabbed his pencil and an old Denny’s receipt, ready for a long night of schematics.

 

~

 

The first thing Steve did on Thursday morning was check on his mom. She hadn’t been doing so well last night and had gone to bed right after dinner. To his dismay, though, she wasn’t in her room.

“Mom?” he called. “Where are you?”

“In the kitchen, Steve,” she shouted back. He hurried down the hall to their cramped galley kitchen and found her humming over the stove, flipping something in a pan. What?!

“Mom, you shouldn’t be up so early,” he tried to say, but she cut him off near immediately.

“I made you breakfast, honey!” She was so chirpy that he couldn’t bring himself to point out last night’s trouble. “Come eat quick, or you’ll miss the bus.”

“Okay, yeah,” he said, making for the counter. “Are you sure—”

“I’ll pick you up after school today,” she continued over him. “I’m going to be at the doctor’s right before that anyway, so I might as well come get you.”  
“Okay,” Steve said. “How are—”

“Oh, and—”

“Mom, let me talk!”

She laughed. “Okay, okay, fine. What is it you so desperately want to tell me?”  
“How are you feeling today? I mean, you’re all chirpy, which is good, but how’s…” He gestured vaguely and realized he was turning into Bucky.

“I’m doing fine.” She smiled at him. “No need to worry. Last night was bad, but the pain’s gone down and I don’t feel sick anymore. That’s why I’m going to the doctor today.”

“Okay,” said Steve, finally satisfied. He grabbed a plate and shoveled eggs and toast onto it.

 

~

 

One amazing breakfast later, Steve was out the door and on the bus. He made for his usual seat in the second to last row, when he noticed someone near the front quickly glance away from him.

He slid into the seat next to Bucky, because of course it was Bucky, and elbowed him in the arm. “Since when do you take the bus?”

Bucky glared at him, pulling an earbud out. “Since I lost a fucking bike tire and couldn’t get it fixed.”

“How do you even lose a bike tire? Did you lose any other parts? Maybe I can help.”

“Some asshole stole it, obviously.”

“Oh yikes, that’s shitty. I didn’t know that happened here.”

Bucky almost cracked a smile at that. “It wasn’t here.”

“Okay well, if I can help you in any way, seriously let me know.”

“Yeah, sure.” Bucky stared out the window. After a few minutes, he pulled out his phone. Since they had English today, the APLAC chat was probably going to be pretty interesting, as usual.

His notifications panel was full of missed messages from last night, most of them from Tony and his best friend Rhodey.

Steve glanced over at him. “You catching up too? It gets pretty wild at around 2 am.”

Bucky nodded and scrolled to that point. “Oh shit, they got Nat involved.”

Natasha was notoriously mysterious, and to everyone except Bucky, existed only in the context of class. They’d gone to HYDRA Academy’s lower school together for a year, but she’d transferred back into the public system, leaving him there alone. When he’d started at SHIELD High as a freshman they’d reconnected, and had been eating lunch behind student parking lot together ever since.

For her to even surface in the group chat, though…well, the only other time it had happened was when she thumbs down reacted a selfie that Tony had sent, which set a pretty high standard.

**APLAC Chat!!1!: Sept 4, 2:00 AM**

_Tony: yo rhodey_

_Tony: do u still have my mechanical pencil_

_Tony: i need it dude_

_Tony: u never give me my pencils back!!!!! >:( _

_Rhodey: What_

_Rhodey: What mechanical pencil_

_Tony: d00d…_

_Tony: u gotta b kidding me -_-_

_Rhodey: What/???_

_Tony: plz i need it!!_

_Rhodey: Uh what does it look like_

_Tony: its red and gold_

_Tony: with my name monogrammed on it_

_Tony: and it has a diamond on the end_

_Bruce: Hey you two know you can have a private conversation. Which you should_

_Tony: but we’re both in this chat_

_Tony: so_

_Tony: we can talk here_

_Rhodey: He has a point man_

_Rhodey: But yeah I found it_

_Natasha: if either of you idiots send another message youll regret it._

_Tony: :O ohhhhh hiiiii nat!!!!_

_Natasha: [Photo on 09/04]_

_Natasha: enjoy everyone_

_Rhodey: LMAO middle school Tony_

_Rhodey: Remember how he made everyone call him iron man_

_Tony: WTF NAT WHERED U FIND THAT D: < _

**Sept 4, 6:10 AM**

_Pepper: Hey the homework was just the next chapter right?_

_Pepper: And nice pic of Tony :)_

_Rhodey: Yeah LOL_

_[Tony left the group.]_

Bucky couldn’t stop the dumb smile from splitting his face anymore. Steve peeked over his shoulder and burst out laughing.

“I _know_ ,” he tilted his phone screen up towards Bucky. “Made a Snapchat sticker from that picture of Stark.”

Bucky actually laughed at that. “You need to send that to me.”

“Wait yeah, lemme add you.”

Bucky held up his phone with the Snapchat code on it. Steve tried to scan it and ended up focusing the camera instead. He tried again, and took a picture of the code instead. The third time he tried, Snapchat recognized the song that was blasting from the back of the bus, which was apparently Despacito—the version with Justin Bieber on it.

Bucky was holding back so much laughter that his face was bright red at this point. He held out his hand for Steve’s phone and typed in his username to save him the trouble.

 _“_ Xx underscore Winter Soldier underscore xx? What’s with the weird capitalization?” Steve asked incredulously.

“Shut up!” Bucky shoved the phone back into his hands and glared out the window. “We all had an emo phase, okay?”

“I mean, I didn’t, but okay…”

At that, the bus pulled up in front of the school.

“Well, uh, see you later then,” Bucky mumbled, turning towards his first block class.

“Yeah, bye.” Steve turned in the same direction.

“Oh my god, we have the same first block.” Bucky was starting to wonder if this entire morning had been designed to embarrass him.

Steve looked up at him and clearly said, “I’ve never wanted to die more than in this moment.”

That startled another laugh out of Bucky, and he instinctively moved to bump his shoulder against Steve’s. “Let’s just go and pretend none of this happened.”

The classroom door opened with a whoosh of air-conditioning. Steve shivered. Bucky glanced to the left and spotted none other than Tony, sitting with his feet on his chair and his head on his knees as Rhodey attempted to pull him out of catatonia. Steve poked him and muttered, “There’s Iron Man.”

Bucky snorted and rolled his eyes. Today’s class was going to be interesting.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chapter.... TWO!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (captain america voice) so you decided to post your second chapter almost a year after the first. here's why this wasn't a good idea

APLAC was relatively uneventful, except for the last few minutes. The usual queue of people waiting to ask questions had formed in front of Mr. Coulson’s desk, with everyone else staying at their tables killing time on their phones.

The door opened and Clint from Amlit Honors sauntered in, a hall pass in his hand. There was really no need for the pass, since his classroom was right next door. Bucky stared at him. Blood was pouring from a deep gash in his left arm.

“Dude,” Rhodey whispered. “Is he okay?”

“I don’t know, man,” muttered Tony, who had emerged from his embarrassment coma. “Isn’t he, like, always hurt?”

He crossed the room to stand behind Natasha, who was focused on her Chromebook, which in this class translated to playing Snake.

“Psst, Nat,” he hissed.

Natasha whipped around and kicked her chair aside, jumping into what looked like an aikido stance. Clint didn’t even blink. “Do you have any Neosporin left?”

She blinked and nodded. “Yeah, lemme grab it.”

Bucky, as well as pretty much the rest of the class, watched in shock as she pulled an entire first aid kit out of her backpack.

“Hold this,” she muttered, shoving a roll of gauze into Bucky’s hands. She passed a clear bottle and cotton pad to Clint. “What did you do to yourself this time?”

“Oh, you know, ruler accident,” he said as Nat finished tying off the bandage. “Thanks!” He turned and left the room, leaving the AP students reeling in his wake.

Bucky stared at the door, highly disoriented. “What the hell was that? Ruler accident?”

“I have had it happen quite often,” chimed in Thor, who had been silent for nearly all of class and was now standing in line to talk to Mr. Coulson.

Bucky exchanged an incredulous look with Rhodey across the room.

At that, the bell rang, and most of the class made their escape for morning break.

Steve turned around from where he sat at the table neighboring Bucky and Nat’s. “Hey, maybe we should video call over the weekend if you still need help with the vocab or whatever.”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” said Bucky, noting that Natasha was eyeing them with interest. “What day?”

“I’m free most of the weekend, so just Snapchat me or something when you have time,” said Steve, smiling.

“Okay, yeah.” Bucky shot a quick glare at Natasha and proceeded to stare at his phone until the bell rang for the next block.

 

~

 

By lunch, Steve was seriously contemplating dropping out and becoming a nomadic sheep herder in Iceland.

He slid into his usual spot next to Sam at their lunch table and sighed. “Guess who has blonde hair, two thumbs, and got a C on their Physics quiz!”

“Oh my god, man, that blows,” Sam replied, holding out a fry.

Steve dejectedly took it and put his head down on the table. “I should’ve taken APES. Everyone I know who’s taking it loves it…why did I even bother with this whole balancing-my-schedule thing when I _know_ I’m no good at hard sciences?”

“Hey, dude, relax, Physics Honors is hard. Besides, don’t you and Bucky have that tutoring arrangement going on? Mr. Short, Dark, and Kinda Emo is in AP Physics. I’m sure you could work something out.” Sam shot a glance at Steve.

Steve didn’t quite pick up on what it meant. “Yeah, I suppose,” he mumbled, taking another fry from Sam’s outstretched hand.

 

Across the school, Bucky was enduring the worst torture of his life.

“So,” said Natasha, sitting two inches from him. “You and Steve.”

“Define _Steve,_ ” replied Bucky, not making eye contact. “What’s a Steve?”

Clint, who was sitting on the back of the bench with his feet on the armrest, snorted. “Bad move, Barnes. That’s my go-to answer when people ask if Nat and I are dating.”

“Yeah, but you aren’t.” The two stared at him. “Or you are?” Their blank stares continued.

“Answer the question, James.”

Bucky rolled his eyes, resigned. “He’s just helping me out with APLAC because he’s way better at it than me. That’s it.”

“I’m also assuming you didn’t start communicating through Snapchat, since you never check your notifications and you have literally two contacts.” Nat raised an eyebrow quizzically. “What was _that_ about?”

“I…may have added a third contact.”

Clint and Nat exchanged a very, _very_ suspicious look.

Clint put his hand on Bucky’s shoulder and looked him in the eyes. “Are we going to need to have The Talk with you?”

“That’s it. I’m leaving.” Bucky stood up and grabbed his bag, stuffing the last of his lunch into his mouth. “I have to get to Physics anyways.”

“You can’t escape this forever!” Nat shouted at his back.

“And yet I’m going to try,” Bucky muttered to himself.

 

~

 

On Friday after school, Bucky was facing the prospect of another long, tedious walk home. His bike was still missing a tire, and there obviously wasn’t anyone to drive him back.

Resigned to his fate, Bucky was turning off the main street when a bright red sports car pulled up next to him. Prepared for some sort of taunt, Bucky stiffened up and shot his darkest glare at the driver through the tinted window.

The window rolled down. “Heeey, Barnes! You’re walking home?”  
Oh, _God,_ it was Tony Stark. Of _course_ it was Tony Stark. Bucky groaned. “Yeah, I kind of have to.”

“Why’s that?”

“My bike’s broken.”

“Dude!” Tony was leaning across the passenger seat to yell at him now. Bucky was pretty sure he was going to crash the car. “You could’ve just asked me! I can help with that.”

“You…can?” It’s not like anyone else was going to fix Bucky’s bike. Definitely not Pierce.

“Yeah, yeah, man! Get in. I’ll drive you home.” The car doors unlocked. Bucky hesitantly grabbed the shiny golden handle and pulled the door open.

Twenty minutes later, Bucky was sitting cross-legged on the floor of his garage and wondering how he got himself into this situation. “Dude, you know you can’t be here, right?” he said as Tony pulled a spare bike tire— _what?!—_ from the trunk of his car. “My, uh, family doesn’t like having guests over.”

“Relax, dude.” Tony waved a hand at him. “I’m sure I can charm them. Everyone loves a Stark.”

“Okay.” Bucky sat back and watched him work. “Why are you doing this, by the way?”

Tony spun the tire and glanced over at him. “It’s not really a big deal. I’m able to help you, so I might as well.”

Bucky narrowed his eyes at him. They didn’t know each other too well, or at all really, but Bucky had a sneaking suspicion that Tony had a motive beyond just helping out a classmate. “Right, makes sense.”

“Okay! All done-zo,” Tony stood up and brushed his hands off on his, indubitably, expensive jeans.

Bucky stood up too. “Thanks so much, man.”

Tony grinned and rocked back on his feet. “What happens now, do we hug? Shake hands? High five?”

Bucky blinked and then straightened up at the sound of another car coming down the road. “You go, actually. My uncle’s about to be home.”

Tony shrugged and walked to his car, opening the door. “Alright then. See you next week.”

He drove off and Bucky hurriedly went into his room, with absolutely no idea what had just happened.

 

~

 

“Hey, Bucky!” Steve beamed when he picked up the call. “You Snapchatted me!”

“Uh, yeah. You asked me to,” Bucky deadpanned.

“Well, it’s vocab review time.” Steve picked up his pencil and wrote on something Bucky couldn’t see, then pulled a stack of flashcards from the other side of the screen. “Okay. What’s anaphora?”

“It’s the repetition of a word at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses.”

“Good! What’s anthimeria?”

“Uh…repetition at the end of successive clauses?”

“Nope. That’s when you substitute a noun for a verb, or a verb for an adjective, stuff like that. Like, switching the part of speech.”

“Oh, right.” Bucky massaged his temples. “Yeah. I remember now.”

Steve was staring at whatever it was off camera. “Yeah. Uh…give me a second.” He picked up his pencil and scribbled something, brow furrowed in concentration, then turned back to the flashcards. “Right. What’s hyperbaton?”

“It’s the inversion of the normal order of words, right? Like Yoda.”

“Yeah, Yoda! Right, you are.” Steve grinned and turned back to glaring at whatever he was working on, glancing at the flashcards for a second as he flipped to the next one. “Right. Uh…litotes.”

“That’s how you say that? I thought it was li-totes. Like tote bags.”

“Nope. It’s ligh-toe-tees.” Steve was still grinding his pencil into the paper he was staring at.

“Dude, what are you working on?” Bucky leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Steve’s face fell. “It’s just physics homework. Sorry. I’m distracted.”

“Do you need help with that?” Bucky leaned forward again. “I’m in AP.”

“Oh my god seriously? I’d owe you my life.”

Bucky laughed. “It’s not that serious, I hope.”

“Suffice it to say that Physics is the only class keeping me from a 4.0.”

Bucky whistled. “That’s more than I can say. What’s the homework on?”

Steve held his worksheet up to the camera and stuck his head around it to see what he was pointing at.

Bucky nodded. “Kinematics. Yeah, I know that.” He helped Steve through the problem, letting himself get distracted by Steve’s focused face while he worked. They made their way through the worksheet, and then Steve picked the flashcards back up.

“You want to keep doing this?”

Bucky shook his head. “You’ve suffered through enough schoolwork for today.”

Steve’s brow furrowed. “Are you sure? Because you spent the whole time helping me and-”

“Steve, it’s fine. But thank you.”

“Okay then! See you later.” Steve waved cheerfully, and then ended the call.

Bucky sighed and rested his head in his hands. This was going to be a _long_ year.

Later that night, he was on his phone, opening and closing Snapchat over and over like that was his job. He’d just had a really terrible idea. A good one, but a terrible one.

All he’d taken was a blank photo, his hand covering the camera to block out all light. There was a timestamp sticker, so maybe just that would be fine. _9:14 PM._

And maybe the _Streak_ sticker too. That would make it obvious. Was obvious a good thing? Maybe it wasn’t a good thing.

“Uuugh,” he groaned, flopping onto his bed. This was so stressful. He didn’t sign up for this stress.

Okay, he was taking 3 AP classes, but this was different. AP Social Interaction.

He was going to go for it and send the picture. He closed the app. Opened it again. What would Nat do? She’d punch him, which probably wasn’t in the books for tonight.

“Okay, fuck it.” Covering his eyes with one hand, he pressed the little arrow with the other, then immediately tossed his phone across the room.

When he picked it up later to charge it he saw a red 1 on the Snapchat icon. It was a message from Steve, consisting of a plate of asparagus and the caption “Delicious dinner streaks!”

Typical Steve. Bucky sighed. He’d panicked over nothing.

 

~

 

**Conversation with Bird Boy, Sept 4**

10:36: Dude

10:36: Sam

**10:38: Steve?? Doubletexting??????? Whaaaaattttttt??**

10:38: Bucky started a streak with me! What does this mean?

 **10:39:** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)**

**10:39: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)**

10:39: Stop

10:40: What do you mean???? It’s not like THAT!!!

**10:40: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)**

**10:40: jk**

**10:40: But you got real flustered right there** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)**

_√ Seen 10:40 PM_

 

Steve put his phone aside and sighed. He hadn’t gotten _flustered._ It was just surprising that Bucky—antisocial, 2004-emo Bucky—had started a streak with _him_ , of all people. He didn’t even know Bucky used Snapchat for its intended purpose, let alone had _streaks_ . Like, what did he usually send? Based off the black screen image he’d just received, probably nothing interesting. But still, _what_?

He was probably just making a big deal out of nothing. Steve leaned on his hand and stared at his dumb physics homework. Why did he even take this class? He could’ve taken APES. At least he’d be doing something useful.

He could text Bucky again. Or—he looked at the clock—he might as well go to bed. At least it was Friday, and he could pretend his Physics and his APLAC and his APUSH didn’t exist until Sunday night.

  
~

**APLAC Chat!!1!: Sept 6, 7:30 PM**

_(Rhodey added Tony to APLAC Chat!!1!)_

_Tony: i found my pencil_

_Thor: Good for you!!! :-D_

_Rhodey: Mention it again and u get kicked_

_Carol: i’m with rhodey_

_(Rhodey liked “i’m with…”)_

_Tony: this i =s bullyihn_

_Tony: of the cyber variety_

_(Pepper set Tony Stark’s nickname to “Iron man”)_

_Tony: i’m gongna lelave agagbin_

**_Bucky: wait i was asleep last time_ **

**_Bucky: are u reenacting for me_ **

_(Natasha laughed at “are u r…”)_

_Sam: Barnes???? In MY good christian groupchat??_

_Bruce: It’s more likely than you think_

_Steve: Hey, leave him alone >:( _

_Steve: But no, we will not reenact. Never._

_Sam: Lol_

 

**Conversation with Bird Boy, Sept 6**

**7:33: DUDEEEE**

7:33: What?

**7:34: “Leave him alone”**

**7:34:** **[Screenshot on Sep. 6]**

**7:34: Hey, comma, leave him alone**

**7:34: Grumpy face**

7:35: Sam. How is this that deep?

7:35: Just contributing to the chat

**7:35: This is a first**

7:36: Why are you even in the chat? You’re in AmLit

**7:36: Nat loves me :)**

**7:36: Also I’m always around u so peopl forget I’m not in the class**

7:37: So the second one.

 **7:37:** **Oh fuk look**

_√ Seen 7:35 PM_

 

**APLAC Chat!!1!: Sept 6, 7:36 PM**

_(Steve removed Sam Wilson from APLAC!!1!)_

_Carol: tea_

_T’Challa: Has anyone begun the HW?_

_Iron man: nope_

_T’Challa: Thanks_

_T’Challa: Anyone else?_

_Thor: No :-/_

_Rhodey: Yes_

_Carol: wait what was the hw_

_vision: Hey, can everyone stop spamming this chat? I think we’d like to all_

_be able to use it for its intended purpose._

**_Bucky: uh_ **

_Iron man: but they were/? talking abt hw_

_Natasha: plbttt pbbtttt blptttt_

_(vision has set his status to Offline)_

_Carol: t e a_

_Rhodey: Wow_

_Matt: The homework was that rhetorical analysis packet thin we did_

_in-class_

_Carol: ok_

_Carol: not doing that_

_Iron man: CAROLLLLL_

_Iron man: the GOAT!!_

_T’Challa: Model student_

**_Bucky: god i wish that were me_ **

_Rhodey: F_

_Iron man: F_

_(Gamora laughed at “_ _Barnes???? In...”)_

_(Gamora liked “tea”)_

_(Gamora disliked “Hey, can ever…”)_

_(Gamora laughed at “plbttt pbb…”)_

_Gamora: F_

_Thor: GAMORA!!!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, FRIEND? :-D_

_Gamora: I got sick this week_

_Gamora: And peter lost my phone_

_Gamora: Because hes stupid_

_Pepper: We missed you in second block on Thursday girl!_

_vision: [Photo on Sep. 6]_

_vision: Does this look correct?_

_√ Seen by everyone 7:43 PM_

 

~

 

Monday morning, Steve took the bus to school alone.

 _Huh,_ he found himself thinking as they trundled down the main road. _Bucky must’ve gotten his bike fixed._

Then, _I kind of wish he hadn’t yet._

Then, _Wait, why would I ever think that???_

Shaking his head, Steve took a deep breath and checked his phone. There was a new Snapchat from Bucky. “ _bike with two tires streaks,”_ it said. Steve almost laughed out loud before remembering where he was. He took a selfie and sent it back captioned, “ _Where’d you find the second tire?”_

The response was almost immediate. He opened it to a photo of the school bike racks captioned “ _iron man._ ” Steve couldn’t contain his laughter at that. Typical Tony.

Since he had the app open, he snapped his own picture of the bike racks through the window as the bus pulled into the lot. Bucky was just walking away, still in the frame. _“Beautiful morning streaks.”_ He sent it to Sam, Bucky, and Thor, then clicked his phone off and set off to face first block.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> find us at @2spider2man (mj) and @elfofcolor (jay) on twitter!

**Author's Note:**

> we really hope you liked this!! feel free to leave a comment (we love those) or yell at us on our twitters, which are @2spider2man and @elfofcolor


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